There are two dumps within a half hour drive from me. One is a landfill that has a metal pile that was awesome for high grading. I say was because now they have a chain link fence with barbed wire and a weigh scale and don't even think about scavenging. There is a "share shed on the place where you can leave items for free that someone else could use. You can take stuff from there for free. I don't think it matters much if I take an old tv or computer tower to scrap as opposed to actually using it as is. The other dump is a transfer station with a metal area and a share shed. There are old faded no scavenging signs but the scrappers don't pay any heed since there are almost never any officials around. I suppose one day this one will be off limits as well, but for now it pays to stop in for a look.

Hmm. I been to the Pickle Butte dump once. Talk about in the freakin HICK STICKS. I thought about scavenging a bit when i was there, but i was the only one there, and all the employees looked just bored enough to get me haha.

Yeah, i go to the hidden springs dump. Pickle Butte is WAYYYYYYYYY out there. Plus you have to be a Canyon County resident to go there i think.

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Pickle Butte? LOL. I thought I lived in Hooterville! Let me change that to Mayberry - Hooterville is going to get too many weird comments! LOL

Success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm...... Churchill

The city of Green Bay has a dump somewhere, i've never gone to it. But, the little suburb I live in, has a dump cite by the city garage...4 areas, 2 for garbage, one for metal, one for freon, with proper tag from the city. I scavenge there all the time, hell i've picked up furniture that I have in my house. The area is frequented by scrappers, so the metal area is usually empty. I went by one time over summer and there was a guy unloading some drywall from a truck, and a scrapper pulling door knobs and other assorted things. I started looking around to see what I could find, and overheard the scrapper telling the other guy "Yeah, they really don't like people coming here taking stuff. They scrap all the metal themselves." I'm thinking he was full of ****, I've gone there in the middle of the day, and the workers just nod at you, or act like you're not even there. I was there early one time (640 AM, not supposed to come by until 700) and one of the office workers drove in and asked what I was doing. I said scavanging. He said if i wanted to dig more I had to leave for 20 minutes, so I didn't piss off any of the people who lived in the area by making noise. I obliged. The place is covered with cameras, and i've never had the cops show up at my house...so i can't be breaking the law that bad.

My experience with this has been interesting. At my transfer station they charge me by weight. They don't have any signs that say no scavenging, so I do. When I pick something up that is metal I get to double dip. I am gaining metal to recycle but now my truck weighs more when I weigh out. So far no one has said anything and I have been doing this for about 2 years.

At my local transfer station, I noticed a huge pallet full of junked moniters and computers. I asked the woman in charge if I could have a couple of the moniters. She told me they aren't any good because the cables have been cut. I said, that's ok. I want to tear them apart for the scrap. Her reply was, "Oh, no, not if your're going to make a profit off them."

When I was about 4or5 yrs. old we lived on a 7 acer farm and we had our own dump. A big hole in the ground that we threw all our trash in. I wish I could go back there and dig it up. No telling what might be there.

Russerected this ancient thread . i have had a negative expierience at my town dump two summers ago, i just about lost my cool lol. I may go back because they have a " swap shop", all non metal items. Could say im getting some christmas presents for somebody special ( ebay). adapt and overcome.

On several occasions, as I am leaving the dump, I see someone coming in with a dryer, washer, what have you. If they came out of Nampa, they likely had to pass at least one scrap yard, if not 2-3 yards.

Drop it off in town, make a few bucks, or drive allll the way out to Pickle Butte, spend gas money AND pay for the "privilege" to dump metal. Granted they have actual trash as well, but you get what I am saying.

People are odd.

I think a lot of people just don't realize how things work--when I first started going to the scrapyard I use now it was to drop off bales of rusty wire I never asked for money (didn't weigh much anyway but I thought I was being smart by going to a nearby place that would recycle the metal and not charge me anything for getting rid of it [it would have been a nightmare to put in the trash]).

Years ago, my dump in Prince William County, Virginia used to have a to-good-to-be-true area. You could pull up and unload anything there that was not ready for trash but could still be used. As I remember it, homeless people, and I mean lots of them, would come right up to your truck and they would unload what you told them was for the t-g-t-b-t area. It was nice and all, but I just can't imagine that is still going on. That was maybe 25 years ago.

Our dump also had an area, now this was 25 years ago, were you could pick up a scrappable appliance, such as an air conditioner or refrigerator. My dad used to pick them up bring them to the house and scrap them with my older brother. He made pretty good money, I mean sometimes several hundred, a month.

The dump is still open today, and is on Hoadly Road, I think. When I was little my mom would back up our station wagon to the huge cliff that had no guardrails (LOL), and we'd toss the trash into the huge pit. I loved it man. It freaked me out, it looked like we'd fall overboard when backing up. In the pit there would be like 4-6 giant crushing trucks just running over all the trash compacting it. Of course the trucks, perspective wise, were the size of match box cars - this cliff had to be 40-50 feet. It was sooo cool to see that as a kid. Now, the dump is a giant mountain, with not one but two peaks. It really makes you humble when you get to see that change. We throw so much away. It's sad. You know, money can't buy everything, but we try to.

Here in the UK, most dumps have a 'Resale Area' where you can buy furniture, sports equipment, bicycles, tools, petrol mowers, DVDs and household items - all at next-to-nothing prices. I always grab a few stainless steel pans, brass candlesticks, that sort of thing - generally you can get it for about half the scrap value. The only thing they can't sell you is electrical items.